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Lem’s latest: What’s next for Mayweather?

Fighters Network
17
Sep

LAS VEGAS — Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer said that he would “float the idea of going to 160” to Floyd Mayweather Jr.’ after Saturday’s win over former RING and WBC junior middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez at the MGM Grand.

“Whether he’s going to be at 147, or 154, who knows, maybe even at 160,” said Schaefer after the post-fight press conference. “We’ll have to see what’s out there and put together a big fight again.”

Mayweather (45-0, 26 knockouts) also defended his WBA 154-pound belt against Alvarez, which he’d won by unanimous decision over three-division titlewinner Miguel Cotto in May of 2012. In the fight before Alvarez, Mayweather, 36, defended his WBC welterweight belt against Robert Guerrero to become THE RING’s 147-pound champion.



A former undisputed middleweight champion and RING light heavyweight champion, Bernard Hopkins said that he would love to face Mayweather at 160 pounds should he get beyond an Oct. 26 defense of his IBF 175-pound belt opposite Karo Murat.

Hopkins, 48, earned the belt with a unanimous decision over Tavoris Cloud in March, extending his own record as the oldest man to win a significant crown. Hopkins first set the record at the age of 46 in May of last year by outpointing Jean Pascal for the WBC’s 175-pound belt.

“We haven’t talked about it,” said Schaefer. “But at some point, I’m going to float the idea of going to 160. I might be shot down, but I have no idea.”

Schaefer also mentioned a potential rematch with Cotto, who had won three straight by knockout before falling to Mayweather, and who lost a subsequent unanimous decision to Austin Trout last December. Cotto will return to the ring on Oct. 5 against Delvin Rodriguez.

“We’ll also see how Miguel Cotto looks. Maybe a Cotto rematch, I don’t know,” said Schaefer. “I think that Miguel Cotto gave him a pretty good fight. We have to see what’s out there. I think that it’s totally premature to speculate what might be next.”

Another option could be RING, WBA and WBC junior welterweight champion Danny Garcia, who scored an 11th-round knockdown on the way to a unanimous decision over No. 1-rated Lucas Matthysse in what Garcia said would be his final bout as a 140-pounder.

“Danny Garcia, at some point, has got to make believers out of us, So I don’t know if that is a possibility,” said Schaefer, addressing the notion of Garcia’s options at 147 pounds including Mayweather. “The good thing is that Floyd is going to be fighting next May, and we don’t really have to make that decision until sometime in January.”

Whatever course Mayweather chooses, Schaefer said the event will be huge.

“One thing I know is that whenever Floyd Mayweather fights, the world watches. Canelo is a young, strong guy and Floyd just dominated him. Floyd Mayweather is entertaining like hell. You saw the celebrities out there tonight. That was unbelievable,” said Schaefer.

“It is once in a lifetime, once in a generation, once in history that you see a talent like Floyd Mayweather. The good news is that when you are the pound-for-pound king, the list of guys that want to fight you never seems to get shorter, it always seems to get longer.”

SHOWTIME TO AIR MAYWEATHER-ALVAREZ, GARCIA-MATTHYSSE ON SATURDAY

Showtime will air the Mayweather-Alvarez and Garcia-Matthysse bouts on Saturday at 9 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the West Coast), then on Sept. 25 premiere the epilogue of Showtime’s All Access: Mayweagther vs. Canelo.

The show will spotlight the intensity of fight week, taking viewers inside the ropes on fight night and into the rarely seen, uncelebrated aftermath of world championship boxing.

TRAINER ANGEL GARCIA DISCUSSES HIS FATHER-SON RELATIONSHIP WITH DANNY

During the most treacherous moments of fights, father-son training relationships have not always worked out in boxing. So far, at least, that has not been the case for Danny Garcia and his father, Angel.

So far, Angel Garcia has successfully balanced the strong, paternal instinct to protect his offspring with the obligation to execute the necessary game plan for victory.

“It’s who can stay focused, and who can keep their son focused right along with them,” said Angel Garcia, during an earlier interview with RingTV.com. “If you lose control, then your son is going to lose confidence and he will lose control. They have to be able to work together, mentally, the both of them. You have to become that trainer.”

Matthysse had a 4-2 record aginst former titleholders, including four stoppages, entering his fight with Garcia, who, with his father, delivered what Hopkins called “a masterful performance.”

During the post-fight press conference, Angel Garcia explained why his relationship works with Danny Garcia, whom the father slapped hard on the cheek, telling him to “wake the f–k up,” prior to the seventh round of the Matthysse fight.

Danny responded with seventh-round blows that nearly shut Matthysse’s right eye.

“The first thing is, our love is too strong. I love Danny so much, people don’t understand that. I love the hell out of Danny. What you want me to say? That’s my son. I love all my children. Listen, I would never sell Danny out for nobody. I love my children too much. What I have, I struggle to give them. I’ve taught Danny to be a hard worker,” said Angel Garcia.

“‘If you listen,’ I tell Danny, ‘knowledge is free. All you’ve got to do is to listen to me.’ I say, ‘if you listen to me, I’ll give you all the knowledge in the world.’ There’s no money, it was knowledge. I say, ‘out of 10, only one’s going to make it, and that one is going to be you if you listen.’ And I’m glad that he’s listened. That’s why he’s here today. This didn’t start one day when he was 14 or 15 and went to the gym and all of a sudden he wanted to fight. This started when he was a child. This was a dream.”

REFEREE TONY WEEKS DISCUSSES GARCIA-MATTHYSSE

Referee Tony Weeks explained to RingTV.com why he allowed Garcia perhaps three or four hard warnings for low blows throughout the fight before finally penalizing the winner for a shot that landed directly on Matthysse’s cup in the 12th round.

“I kept warning Danny to keep the punches up. A couple of times, Matthysse would grab his head, so I don’t believe that he was doing them deliberately,” said Weeks.

“But the punches were straying low, and that last one in that last round, Matthysse didn’t have his head or anything. That was just a straight out low blow.”

Weeks also contended, as did Garcia, during the post-fight press conference, that the ugly welt which surfaced beneath Matthysse’s right eye in the seventh round, was the result of a punch.

“It was the punches. Those were very hard punches. Their heads came together a little bit, but, the punches really did it,” said Weeks.

“I thought that the corner people did an excellent job on the swelling of the eyes, because the eyes went down, and they didn’t swell up as they normally would when the eye would close.”

ABNER MARES-JHONNY GONZALEZ, ADRIEN BRONER-MARCOS MAIDANA ON DEC. 14?

Stephen Espinoza, speaking to RingTV.com at the MGM following the Mayweather-Alvarez fight, confirmed an earlier report that three-division titlewinner Abner Mares is being considered for a rematch with Jhonny Gonzalez on a Dec. 14 Showtime Pay Per View card that could be headlined by WBA welterweight beltholder Adrien Broner vs. Marcos Maidana.

“We’re in discussions for Broner and Maidana. That’s a definite possibility. Beyond that, there’s a lot of possibilities, but we haven’t formalized anything,” said Espinoza. “Mares-Gonzalez would be an amazing fight, whether it’s on that card or another one. Abner wants to do it as soon as possible, so, Dec. 14 is a possibility for that too.”

Mares lost by shocking first-round knockout to Gonzalez last month, and afterward informed RingTV.com of his desire for a return bout with Gonzalez, who has scored knockouts in 13 of his past 15 victories.

Schaefer informed RingTV.com on Sept. 10 that Dec. 14 was the potential pay per view date for Broner-Maidana, and said of Gonzalez-Mares II that he hoped to “get that fight done somewhere in November-December.”

MAIN EVENTS SIGNS LIONELL THOMPSON

Main Events has announced the signing of Lionell Thompson (14-2, 9 KOs), a 28-year-old light heavyweight from Buffalo, N.Y.

Thompson has won two straight fights since falling by September’s third-round stoppage to Sergey Kovalev, which ended his 12-fight winning streak that had included eight knockouts.

Lem Satterfield can be reached at [email protected]